G.O.P. Blues: Another Farcical Day on Capitol Hill

Give the Republicans on Capitol Hill one thing: they don’t leave a job half done. Evidently disturbed by polls showing Congress with a single-digit approval rating, they appear intent on driving it to zero.

What other explanation can there be for Tuesday’s farcical maneuvers, which saw the House Republican leadership try and fail to seize the initiative in the debt-ceiling standoff from the Senate, in the process humiliating Speaker Boehner yet again. By the end of the day, facing renewed opposition from some of his own members, Boehner had dropped his efforts to pass a bill that would have ended the shutdown and raised the debt ceiling until February, but one with more riders than an agreement that Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, and Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, have been working on.

From the point of view of the country, that’s good news. Overnight, officials representing McConnell and Reid were rushing to complete their negotiations, which were called off on Tuesday after Boehner’s unwise intervention. As it stands now, the Senate agreement would reportedly fund the government until January 15th and raise the debt ceiling until February 7th, with the only concession from the Democrats being an agreement to toughen up the policing of eligibility requirements for obtaining federal subsidies to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Once the Senate passes a bill and sends it to the House, the Speaker will face the unenviable choice of allowing it to pass with Democratic support or exercising the nuclear option of forcing a default. Having already ruled out this second option in public comments, there were reports on Tuesday night that Boehner was prepared to bring the Senate bill to the floor, which would probably insure its passage. That wouldn’t end the budget crisis—it’s never-ending—but it would put off the next showdown until the new year, whilst ensuring that the Republican ultras had gained almost precisely nothing for their willingness to shut down the government and raise the prospect of a debt default. (In another development on Tuesday, Fitch, one of the big ratings agencies, placed U.S. government debt on watch for a potential downgrade, saying that “the prolonged negotiations over raising the debt ceiling (following the episode in August 2011), risks undermining confidence in the role of the U.S. dollar as the preeminent global reserve currency by casting doubt over the full faith and credit of the U.S.”)

From the point of view of the Republican Party, things have been going from bad to worse. With the party divided, its poll ratings tanking fast, and its leadership unwilling to risk an actual default, it has been clear for some time that it was in a losing position. The discussions in the past few days have been about the terms of surrender, with the White House and Reid pressing for something close to an unconditional capitulation. And like an army knowing that its position on the battlefield is hopeless, the Republican ranks have descended into a rabble. In an article on the Web site of the National Review on Tuesday night, Jonathan Strong quoted a senior G.O.P. aide as saying, “It’s all over. We’ll take the Senate deal.”

That ended a day that had begun with hopes of a rapid Senate agreement, only to progress into acrimony and chaos as Boehner’s staff unveiled a proposal that attempted to satisfy demands from the Republican right for some significant change to Obamacare by eliminating the government contributions that White House and Congressional staff members are entitled to receive toward the cost of purchasing health-care plans on the new exchanges. (My colleague Ryan Lizza posted an article about this proposal.) But this wasn’t nearly enough for some conservatives, who wanted the House bill to include spending cuts, entitlement reforms, or an earlier expiry of the new debt ceiling.

Shortly before 5 P.M., Robert Costa, a reporter for the National Review, tweeted a quote from a staffer on Capitol Hill who was familiar with the internal G.O.P. vote count on Boehner’s bill. “They know it’s f*****d.” A bit later, the official word came that the Republican leadership had called off a meeting of the Rules Committee, which would have paved the way for a vote. At about 7 P.M., Kevin McCarthy, the House Majority Whip, told the Washington Post, “We’re done for the night.” And Costa relayed some more Republican gossip: “Member texts from Cap Hill Club basement, tells me the whole R scene is “depressing… everyone needs a drink after today.”

Me, too, but mine will be a celebratory one. The G.O.P. wingnuts, having threatened to reduce the United States to the ranks of what used to be called (in highly derogatory terms) banana republics, only to be repudiated by the American public, now appear about to be roundly defeated and humbled. After weeks of dismal news from the nation’s capital, such a denouement would be more than welcome. In fact, make that drink a large one.